Nico followed the others down the hall. To his surprise, the plan to get out of the cell had worked. They had disabled the camera, so the guards would come check on them, then overpowered the guards and escaped. There were so many ways it could have gone wrong. It hadn't.
Nico hadn't talked much since he had been captured. He hadn't needed to, and he wasn't a very talkative person. He would have shadow traveled to Percy, then back to camp. Unfortunately, there were no shadows large enough to travel with, in the cell or in this hallway.
They reached the end of the hall sooner then he had expected. There had been no features to the wall until now. On one side of the hall, there was a and, on the other was window that looked out into space. If Nico hadn't already guessed they were dealing with aliens then he would have suspected it now. Everyone else seemed surprised except Jamie.
Nico watched as John tried the door. It was locked. John and Jamie prepared to knock the door down.
"Wait." Nico said moving up to the door. Hazel had shown him some tricks he could do with metal, one of which was unlocking simple door locks. He set his palm on the lock for a few seconds and concentrated. Amazingly, this door had a simple lock. He quickly unlocked and opened the door.
"How did you do that?" John asked.
"My sister showed me some tricks." Nico replied as he ushered the others through the door, into the dark room beyond.
The room was dimely lit and lined with display cases. They were filled with some odd things. One had a pair of hand guns and a video screen showing some footage from hidden cameras. First an empty apartment, then another only this one wasn't empty, an older lady sat napping in an armchair, then an office with a balding man who was reading a newspaper.
John had gone over to that display case and after checking for alarms, opened it and pocketed one of the guns and held the other in his hand.
The next display case held a pair of Egyptian staffs and what seemed to be footage of a battle against a... was that a giant snake?. Sadie had gone over to that one and seemingly made one of the staffs vanish into thin air. She leaned on the other one watching the others.
The next display case held another staff, it had a brass cap with designs etched into it. The only other thing in the case was a wooden drop spindle, and a dirty lump of crystal. Sandry went over to this case and retrieved the items putting the crystal in a pocket on her dress and holding the other two items.
The next display case contained a strange looking key and a device that looked kind of like (a device used to look into peoples ears.) It also held a picture of a blue police box sitting on a spiral road, and a folder that read 'The Doctor'. Jamie retrieved these items, and after a bit put the folder and picture back.
The last display case held his Stygian Iron sword and Percy's sword Riptide in its pen form. He put Riptide in his pocket. There must be some charm preventing it from being in Percy's pocket he thought.
John moved towards the door. " We need to get moving."
Nico went to the door, looked it over, than shook his head. " It isn't locked. Come on."
Just then, the door jiggled. Nico barely had time to jump against the wall, behind the door as it opened. He kept as still as possible. He saw that John had pushed Sandry down behind the display cases. Carter was nowhere to be seen. Jamie, however was pressed up against the corner, trying to hide in plain sight.
A man walked through the room. He was short, had dark hair and a beard. He was muttering to himself, his arms swinging as he walked. He had a vial filled with dark purple liquid in one hand. He passed through the chamber, seemingly without noticing Jamie. He closed and locked the door behind him as he left.
"Now we really need to get moving."
They hurried through the door and into the brightly lit hall beyond. One way went down around a corner, and the other dead ended at a door. Nico glanced down that way then at the others. Jamie and Carter nodded, and he led the way down to that door. It had no doornob. He put his hand on the door.
"It's electronic. I can't open it." Nico said as he stepped back from the door. Then he paused and stepped forward again putting his ear to the door.
"Hello? Who's out there?"